A New Person

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, January 16.

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

W

hen I was 15, I spent the summer training to be a boxer. One day, as I traveled home from training, the thought popped into my mind, “You’re sick.”

I shrugged off the thought. At home, though, I began to feel depressed. I asked my parents to take me to a therapist. But then I realized that I might be expelled from school if people thought I was mentally ill. I didn’t go for counseling.

Two weeks later, another frightening thought popped into my mind: “You will die in a month.”

I felt worse and worse. Life lost all meaning. Everyone thought that I was seeking attention, but I was in deep pain and no one believed me. I didn’t understand what was happening.

At the end of the month, Grandmother gave me a haircut in our home. As she cut my hair, I wept.

“It’s OK,” said Grandmother, who thought I was going through some hormonal changes. “I’ll just finish cutting your hair.”

“I’m dying,” I said.

Grandmother thought that I was seeking attention. I actually wanted to commit suicide, but I couldn’t do it. After Grandmother finished cutting my hair, she sat down. Mother was sitting nearby. I remained in the chair. Looking up to the ceiling, I prayed silently, “God, if You exist, help me.”

Nothing happened.

I felt a strong desire to go to the bathroom and kill myself.

At that moment, I saw a light come down from the ceiling like a bolt of lightning. It went into my chest. I cannot describe how it felt. It was pleasant. I felt eternity in me. It happened in a split second.

I jumped up from the chair and exclaimed, “Praise God! God healed me!”

Mother and Grandmother hadn’t seen the light, and they looked at me with concern.

“Calm down,” Grandmother said. “Everything will be OK.”

Elatedly, I hugged my mother. It was like I hadn’t seen her in weeks.

“God healed me,” I said.

I found my twin brother, Vadim, playing on the computer. I told him about the light. “God healed me,” I said.

He didn’t believe me. He thought I was making up a story.

Grandmother thought that I was mentally ill.

I understood that I had nearly killed myself, but Someone had saved me. At that moment I realized that God exists.

That day began a long journey
toward Jesus.

Today I am studying to be a pastor at Zaoksky Adventist University. My family is happy for me. They say I am a new person.

I believe that God brought healing into my life, and I have not been the same since. I cried out to Him, and He heard me. I praise Him for being a God who hears and answers prayers.

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help Zaoksky Christian School construct its own school building on the campus of Zaoksky Adventist University. Currently the school borrows classrooms from the university, and your offering will help the children meet in their own classrooms. Thank you for planning a generous offering.